Known tape printing apparatus of the type which can be modified to the present invention are disclosed in for example EP-A-322918 and EP-A-322919 (Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha) and EP-A-267890 (Varitronic). The printers each include a printing device having a cassette receiving bay for receiving a cassette or tape holding case. In EP-A-267890, the tape holding case houses an ink ribbon and a substrate tape, the latter comprising an upper image receiving layer secured to a backing layer by an adhesive. In EP-A-322918 and EP-A-322919, the tape holding case houses an ink ribbon, a transparent image receiving tape and a double sided adhesive tape which is secured at one of its adhesive coated sides to the image tape after printing and which has a backing layer peelable from its other adhesive coated side. With both these apparatus, the image transfer medium (ink ribbon) and the image receiving tape (substrate) are in the same cassette.
It has also been proposed by the present applicants in, for example, EP-A-578372 to house the ink ribbon and the substrate tape in separate cassettes.
In all of these cases, the image receiving tape passes in overlap with the ink ribbon to a print zone consisting of a fixed print head and a platen (or vice versa) against which the print head can be pressed to cause an image to transfer from the ink ribbon to the image receiving tape. There are many ways of doing this, including dry lettering or dry film impression, but the most usual way currently is by thermal transfer printing where the print head is heated and the heat causes ink from the ink ribbon to be transferred to the image receiving tape.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,130 describes a tape printer for generating labels to be applied to a cord. The document describes the production of a label having a first area in which text is printed. This area is next to an area which is to be wound around the cord. A second area for text is located on the other side of the area which is to be wound around the cord. The two areas containing text are stuck together to form a flag. This label has the following disadvantages. Firstly the flag has to be formed as the label is applied to the cable. This can be difficult to do if the cord is in a difficult to access location. If the flag is badly formed, adhesive on the back of the label will be exposed which will attract dirt and dust which is undesirable. Secondly, the length of the winding part can cause difficulties. If the length is too short, then part of the text may actually be around the cord which makes reading difficult. Accordingly, it is necessary to build in a relatively large margin of error in the winding part of the label. This means that the flags may be larger than required which may be disadvantageous where for example there are a large number of cables in a confined space. Additionally this is wasteful of tape
It is an aim of embodiments of the present invention to address one or more of the above problems.